Speaker 1: Reactionary populism. That's the name we should be using for this sort of newish right
wing that some call Trumpism. Our friend Aaron Rupert, I believe, with a guest writer named
November Laski, has a nice piece on his substack called Elon Musk's Reactionary Populism. I want
to zoom out from Elon Musk a little bit and just kind of give you a foundation to think
about this movement, because we it's very easy and popular now to say MAGA isn't conservative. Jair
Bolsonaro is not a conservative. These are we're not recognizing traditional conservatism in this
new movement. What is it? Reactionary. Populist, I believe, is something that encapsulates a
reactionary. Populism is a political ideology characterized by populist rhetoric and using
populist rhetoric for the people. Right. That's what we're talking about when we say
populist rhetoric. Populist rhetoric to oppose progressive social and progressive political
change. So it often will involve rejecting established political institutions, a defense of
traditional values and ways of life. But under the rhetoric, because remember, populism is a rhetoric
rather than a set of policy ideas, using the rhetoric of populism for your opposition, we're
against this trans stuff. Because of what's best for the average person and the people. The average
girl playing sports, the trans stuff is bad for the. So they use populist rhetoric to oppose
relatively standard at this point, quite frankly, progressive political and social
change. They focus on nostalgia for a past that may not even have existed. That's an important
thing to understand. They refuse to acknowledge and address the challenges that we have today
through this nostalgic focus on a past, past that may or may not have been real. They will resist
the progressive social and political change which can actually hinder progress and hinder social
mobility. In many cases, they reject established political institutions, which will often lead them
to ignore the rule of law. That's sounding pretty familiar when we think about Donald Trump and MAGA
Trumpism. They will defend traditional values and ways of life, but not with the traditional
conservative rhetoric. They will defend it with populist sounding rhetoric which can trick people.
And this is how some left wingers fall prey and victim to right wing populist rhetoric. They will
often promote nativist and protectionist policies like around immigration. Justifying it by saying
This is what's good for the people. And of course, in so doing, they'll harm global trade. They'll
destroy alliances with other countries, as we saw under Trump. They will resist globalization
generally. They will resist immigration. They will resist social diversity, all using the
pseudo populist rhetoric of what's best for the people. And as we saw during the COVID pandemic,
the reactionary populists will often reject evidence and expertize. And that can undermine
public policy. It can undermine decision making. It can undermine the country coming together to
actually deal with issues. Perfectly describes what happened thanks to the MAGA right under
during the COVID pandemic under Donald Trump. The reality, of course, is that while the reactionary
populists will use rhetoric that sounds like maybe it's sort of left wing, it's not in the sense that
this reactionary populist movement is associated with the far right, far right political movements,
extremists, etc., and it will all be under the guise of we are under threat. They will use fear.
We are under threat. It's a political ideology rooted in reactionary right wing conservatism
and a nationalist worldview. But it has been sort of passed through a populist rhetoric filter. So
examples include Trump, of course, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, French politician,
Marine Le Pen. Brazilian president, former president Jair Bolsonaro. These are leaders
whose supporters will often espouse populist sounding rhetoric, but they oppose progressive
political change. They oppose progressive social change. They appeal to a nostalgia
that may not exist. And they at the end of the day, when you get to policy, which you don't
always get to with the reactionary populists, they promote nativist policy, protectionist
policy and reactionary policy. I think that's as good a name as any reactionary populism. Let me
know your thoughts. Check out Aaron and Noah's piece and we'll follow up about this again.